CQC Where is the fun in CQC?

[James Son]

I wonder, what's the fun in CQC? I've played for an hour, i've been killed 1000 times and i've not killed even 10. Am i that bad or CQC is crap? Once someone locks at me, i'm dead in less than 5 seconds, no matter what manoeuvres i do. So, everybody else has gimballed weapons and i'm the idiot with the fixed lasers?

 

[Soopyyy]

Yeah, you die quickly. Best not to worry too much about it and just crack on. Very much a game of repetition and you eventually find your feet. It's not something I can do for hours on end, but I don't mind it for a bit.

 

[Fia]

Once someone starts hitting you it is pretty much over in seconds. You can try running and dodging behind cover, it sometimes works, but generally you are as good as dead. A little practice however and you get quicker at killing others before they get a chance to target you. Like any PvP game you just have to accept that you will mostly be dying until you get a hang of it. Don't forget about your chaff (as many of us did and still do), all those thrusters and your power management and you will soon start getting more kills. Also team deathmatch gives a bit more breathing room to get to grips with things.

 

[psyantologist]

What Fia said.

All weapons are slightly gimballed in CQC (more so than in normal mode) - but you need to target things. Chaff, heat sinks, breaking line of sight causes target locks to get lost (temporarily; you can wait it out/seek hidden foe or untarget and aim all manually at chaff dispersing/cold targets)

But, yeah, it's deathmatch if it's deathmatch ^^ it's chaos. And it's fun when you've gotten used to it. Deaths only hurt your score and ego. Remember that it's a game.

 

[psyantologist]

As sugegsted, you could try Team DM so it's only half the chaos. Get a feel for the condor. It's quite ideal for the task, even in the default lvl1 loudout. Don't worry too much about the unlocks - there's fancy things in there but nothing much that would give you an edge that you cannot get with practice.

Fly, boost, try flying without Flight assist, here and there. Get a feeling for how close you can turn around corners. Corners are your friends.

Concentrate on your own ship first. It's a whole new world. Escpecially in a Condor. A world where the tiny Sidewinder you knew from normal mode is now The Tank.

 

[AlianAnt]

It's just radically more difficult because the only thing you're going to face are other people. Just keep trying, and think outside the box. Flight Assist is an extremely important thing to master in PvP and something, pre-1.4 (I haven't played anything but CQC for about an hour so far), AI almost never uses. So, if you've got one grizzled PvP veteran in a game, they're probably going to dominate.

Just do your best, and master what your weaker points.

 

[shadowwar]

I find very much getting getting slaughtered in this part of the game a part of give and take. I have only played for just over an hour and find the pace is something I think I could get to enjoy. I just made level 4 and this is something for me! I know I am crap and all I am doing is making the best of a slow progression.

So when I manage to get into a game and I keep getting blown up I don't care because that's the whole point to CQC. Kill or be killed!

I am something akin to laser beam fodder!!

 

[CaptainKremmen]

One hint... use the left panel to choose something like STEALTH... highlights that item on radar, so you can make a beeline for it, fly through it, and use it wisely.

 

[Sucky]

I can feel your frustration James son. I had the same when I first tried it out in beta, I was ashamed that a friend (which had played CQC already a few days at that moment) I teamed up and did some games with was a lot better then me, everyone was better and I felt ashamed to be useless at each game for the team. However playing more games, get to learn the maps, adjusting myself to the speed and manouvering that comes with CQC and have to aim more since fixed weapons comes with a small gimbaled area. I started to get the hang of it. Also I started using voice attack with CQC and it does help me enormously with fast power distributing, for me as a keyboard and mouse user I find it great, with the help of Astra, to switch to full pips in engines for example to get out of situations when the heat is too much

 

[Brimstone]

I'm that friend of Sucky's that he's talking about...

For real though, what Sucky's saying is true; the more you learn the maps and especially where the power-ups are, your experience will improve a lot.

Strategic use of your secondary (chaff, heat sink, shield cell bank, and the other modules that unlock at higher ranks) is VERY important, and each of those modules have their own way they should be used. A LOT of the people I've popped in CQC never use them, which makes them even easier targets!

Another thing to really take advantage of, is your thrusters. USE your thrusters! Thrust up, down, left, right, reverse, and in different combinations so that you can get out of your enemy's firing arc and/or strafe around them. This is something that I use heavily, and it especially helps if they are using a projectile weapon because the more erratic your 'flight vector' or what ever is, the harder it will be for them to hit you with projectiles.

So using chaff/heatsinks and thrusting around like a maniac is what works for me, it could work for you too. Unless people are teaming and ganging up on you in free for all death-match(this happens a lot), then when the match is over just back out of it and try to get into a different group.

 

[X-Terminator]

I wonder, what's the fun in CQC? I've played for an hour, i've been killed 1000 times and i've not killed even 10. Am i that bad or CQC is crap? Once someone locks at me, i'm dead in less than 5 seconds, no matter what manoeuvres i do. So, everybody else has gimballed weapons and i'm the idiot with the fixed lasers?

It's a "too many cooks" issue simply because the target keybinds are nurfed. Bring in Target Nearest Hostile and it makes sense for all controllers. With keyboard I find it a hassle when I accidentally Unselect my target often. I hate that. If you turn with Flight Assist plus use up/down thrusters to turn then it gets easier. Though many of my kills are rams! I hate the recticle not abidding with my In-Game Control Settings - so what the hell is that menu for precisely??? NO! I love CQC Contest but those things deeply distress me. Plus you can mostly only get into Solo Deathmatches.

 

[Camen]

This is the PvP First Person Shooter part of the game that is obviously not for everyone. I enjoy it and really wish this kind of combat could happen organically in Open Space (if it does, please tell me where). Just think of this as another skill that needs to be mastered. The good news is that investing a few hours can get you a long way over the curve, but you have to be OK losing and dying a lot at first. The secret is to not give up and not get frustrated (this isn't your real ship).

I would also never recommend Keyboard only. Joystick or Mouse (whatever you are more comfortable with) has a major advantage.

 

[ShoeHash]

This is the PvP First Person Shooter part of the game that is obviously not for everyone. I enjoy it and really wish this kind of combat could happen organically in Open Space (if it does, please tell me where).

You are looking for dangerous resource extraction sites. Essentially asteroid fields with pirates or people to undermine. It's a bit more organic if organic is groups of AI attacking you and asteroids thrown in there for some dangerous curves. I like Elite like I like my women, built with poor artificial intelligence.

Edit uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh yeah, they pretty much fly straight into them.

 

[Mr_Blastman]

CQC is tons of fun!

 

[kilvenny]

Use the structures as cover. Keep close to it. My experience is if you keep close to the structure you will reduce massively your number of deaths. What you will also find is that you can come around a corner on to a fight. Have a few free shots before anyone realises what is happening. The other problem at the moment is you have a lot of good pilots at low levels so you are not getting matched against similar expertise. If it's any consolation I am rubbish, before I started doing the above I would regularly finish last with loads of deaths and the odd kill.

 

[rasatsu]

The first time I managed to kill several ships and stay alive for several minutes before getting killed.

Some know what to do out of the box, while others need to learn.

 

[mungy]

Generally, I am not a fan of PvP mostly because I am rubbish. Things like ARMA III are fantastic to look at, but I don't see the bad guys and die horribly in the first contact
CQC is different. I still die horribly, but I get to take someone with me sometimes. Using vertical and lateral thrusters, staying within the blue on the accelerator thingy, boosting and remembering to use chaff mean even I can get a few shots in and am well happy with an assist. Bouncing off the scenery is also useful

My favourite bit so far was when I found myself between 2 plates on a station so I just stopped and thought it may be possible to get away with sniping. No such luck. The enemy spotted me and made me go boom

I honestly thought I'd hate CQC. But I don't. Couldn't play it for hours and there are some seriously good pilots out there which makes it tough for us cack-handed incompetents. I'm rank 5 or 6 and finished 2nd once in a death match. What do we say to death? Not tod....Oh F.....BOOM

 

[tawittle]

The starting condor is probably the best ship to use for awhile. Its really superb. It has great turning, its fast, and it has great defense as long as you make sure to use the chaff.

Everyone has gimballed weapons in CQC, and everyone is in a small ship, so if you let someone onto your tail you're essentially dead unless you have something to save you.

The problem is that CQC is new, so there are veteren players who are playing at default elo and lvl 1 being matched against people who just started playing in the last week.

Make sure you have chaff bound, and take advantage of turning flight assist off! After you are already in a turn turning FA off will make you turn faster. It's an important part of maneuvering that will often let you outmaneuver other players.

 

[Apos]

I think the fun is to the people who enjoy it? Probably.

 

[Quineloe]

It's certainly not the best thing since sliced bread. It feels poorly balanced, and a lot of waiting is required to get matches. regular deathmatch games don't really last long enough given the long time between them